Human rights group flags violence against B’desh LGBTQI+ community
PARIS, June 30: A leading international human rights organisation, Justice Makers Bangladesh in France (JMBF), has voiced grave concern over the escalating violence and discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community in Bangladesh. An international event, ‘Apero-debat: Les droits LGBTQI+ dans le monde (LGBTQI+ Rights Around the World)’ in Paris was organised by Solidarite International LGBTQI+, in collaboration with Agir ensemble pour les droits humains and the LGBTQI+ Centre of Paris and Ile-de-France, on Monday at the LGBTQI+ Centre of Paris to mark the closing of Pride Month 2026. According to the JMBF, the programme brought together LGBTQI+ activists, human rights defenders, diplomats, civil society leaders, and allies from around the world for dialogue, solidarity, and networking. Shahanur Islam, founder president of JMBF, during the discussion, expressed deep concern over the deteriorating human rights situation facing LGBTQI+ people in Bangladesh. He highlighted that Section 377 of the Bangladesh Penal Code, a colonial-era law inherited from British rule, continues to criminalise consensual same-sex relations. Shahanur warned that the situation for LGBTQI+ people in Bangladesh has deteriorated significantly since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in August 2024. He briefed the participants that JMBF’s Annual State of LGBTQI+ Rights in Bangladesh 2025 Report documented 260 human rights violations affecting at least 426 LGBTQI+ individuals in 2025. (IANS)
US SC upholds birthright citizenship, rejects Trump’s proposed limits
WASHINGTON, June 30: A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and more recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen. “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights-to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in this land,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that promise today.” (AP)
